Los Angeles Louri Loughlin has begun to serve two months in prison for her role in the college admissions scam, with her husband to serve 5 months, and the architect of the scam to serve up to 65 years in prison for his role. The 56-year-old actress and her husband were convicted as part of an FBI investigation, an investigation which only began when another member of the scam blew the whistle to save his own skin from another FBI investigation on his doorstep and offered up this scam instead.
Loughlin will be released a few days after Christmas with a formal date December 27, 2020 given by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Once released, she still has to complete two years of supervised release. After initially rejecting a plea deal, Loughlin pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud in May 22.Loughlin had asked to serve her prison sentence in Victorville, located on the outskirts of Los Angeles.
Loughlin's Husband, Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and will serve 5 months. He has been given until November 19, 2020 to report to prison.
Although, Loughlin was not the architect of the scam, she was amongst others who had tried to take advantage of the system through fraud. The couple paid $500,000 disguised as a donation to the firm of William Rick Singer, so the admissions committee at the University of Southern California would believe their two daughters - Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose - would join the rowing team, despite neither of them ever being trained in the sport and with no plans to do so.
College admissions are fiercely competitive.
Many parents turn to legitimate college admission helpers who report to 'know the system' and offer to guide children through the application process and to help best polish academic, sport and community resumes. The annual college admissions process is a competition amongst students and each student / parent wants the application to stand out to the college for admission the following academic year.
However, Loughlin's downfall came when the college admissions help came from Rick Singer. Singer's established system crossed the line, and with Loughlin's knowledge, Singer manufactured sporting records, pressured teachers to change grades, and paid off college officials with bribes (masked as a $500k donation).
And, in another stunning revelation, as revealed in this excellent piece by Vanity Fair, there was no suspicion of this scam by the FBI. There were some red flags amongst students, but there was no active investigation. This changed quickly when one of the parent's who had also used the services of Rick Singer, the college admission mastermind, was busted by the FBI on a finance fraud and in an effort to save his own skin, offered up the cheating scandal that was operated by Rick Singer.
In March 2019, 50 people were charged by the FBI and the US Attorney's Office with bribery and fraud related to the nationwide college admissions cheating scandal.
'I went along with a plan to give my daughters an unfair advantage...and in doing so I ignored intuition and allowed myself to be swayed from my moral compass.
'I thought I was acting out of love for my children, but in reality, I had only undermined and diminished my daughters' abilities and accomplishments.'
She continued: 'While I wish I could go back and do things differently, I can only take responsibility and move forward.
'I have great faith in God and I believe in redemption and I will do everything in my power to redeem myself and use this experience as a catalyst to do good and give back for the rest of my life.'
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